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Kuwabara Clan
The Kuwabara clan (桑原一族, Kuwabara Ichizoku) were prominent nobles of the now former Castle Country (城の国, "Jō no Kuni", VIZ; "Land of Palaces"). They were famous for their inherent war-making talent and notorious kekkei genkai, Magatama. After a calamitous coup d'état, the clan—and their once prosperous land—was split apart, many believing them to be extinct. Background Origins According to the legend, "many moons ago" a priestly scribe of meticulous skill serving at the pleasure of a king observed the foreboding clouds that circled over his lord's castle. The storm clouds were said to remain in the skies above for several months, the king becoming more anxious as the days passed. Advisers and priests in the land believed this phenomenon to be a foretelling from the heavens, predicting calamity. Eventually, all those who left the king's castle were struck by an unusually quick and powerful bolt of lightning, instantly being incinerated. The king was unable to leave his estate in fear that he too would succumb to this presage. Suspecting that the lightning was the work of a vengeful spirit (怨霊, "onryō", VIZ; "vengeful ghost"), the scribe urged the king to allow him to approach and appease the spirit. His name was Kuwabara. Preparing his priestly tools and artifacts, Kuwabara went out into the castle's courtyard. The vengeful spirit whose name unknown spoke with the priest, detailing how he was once a honorable noble of the land and was exiled to a border province up until his death. His wrath had become so great that he haunted the place of his banishment until the king who banished him died as he did. The heavy grudge would not be lifted until the king emerged from the castle to accept his fate. Knowing full well that the king could and would do no such thing, Kuwabara instead offered himself up instead of the king. Accepting the trade-off, spirit struck Kuwabara with a mighty thunderbolt. Instead of dying, however, the spirit granted a great deal of responsibility and power to the man—so long as he lived in the land it would never be struck with lightning nor experience great misfortune. When it proved to be true, people in this land and abroad would whisper in a low, thunder-like grunt "Kuwabara Kuwabara", so as to ward off lightning and misfortune. Ones would even wear charms with his name etched or painted into them in hopes that they would only experience fortune in their lives. Kuwabara would come to find that he was imbued with a potent life force and extraordinary affinity for lightning. In fact, the spirit would live on inside of Kuwabara for the rest of his life. He would pass these same endowments on to his offspring up until his death at an unusually old age. Trivia * Fitting with the nature and lore of the clan, Kuwabara can also be translated to mean (桑原) "Charm to Ward of Lightning and Misfortune". ** "Kuwabara kuwabara" (桑原桑原) is a phrase used in the Japanese language to ward off lightning. It is analogous to the English phrase "knock on wood" to prevent bad luck. ** The word kuwabara literally means mulberry field. According to one explanation, there is a Chinese legend that mulberry trees are not struck by lightning. The origin of kuwabara is not definitely known, but it has nothing to do with mulberry plants, though it means 'mulberry fields.' * The "vengeful spirit" mentioned in the origins of the story is based on Sugawara no Michizane (菅原道真), a scholar, poet, and politician who turned into a vengeful demon after death.